Ludography
80/100
Players7 ratings
84/100
Critics3 reviews
More scores
Metacritic12 critic reviews
81/100
Metacritic usersuser score
72/100
GameFAQsTough
4.75/5
Player reviews
84% positive9,786 reviews
Steam Deck
Verified
Runs on
Windows
Price
US$34.99

Where to get it

Stranded: Alien Dawn cover

2022 · Haemimont Games · City-building · Real-time strategy

Stranded: Alien Dawn

Brave a new world in Stranded: Alien Dawn, a planet survival sim placing the fate of a small marooned group in your hands. Forge your story through compelling and immersive strategic gameplay as you make vital decisions to protect your survivors.

Released
1 October 2022
Platforms
PlayStation 4PlayStation 5WindowsXbox OneXbox Series X/S
Genres
City-buildingReal-time strategySimulationStrategySurvival
Developers
Haemimont Games
Publishers
Frontier Foundry
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
Science fictionSurvival
Country
Bulgaria
Age ratings
USK 12GRAC 15+CLASS_IND 18ACB MPEGI 16ESRB T
Languages
Chinese (Simplified), English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Spain)
Time to beat
21hmain story80hcompletionist

About

Stranded: Alien Dawn is a survival simulation video game developed by Haemimont Games and originally published by Frontier Foundry. The game was released for Windows PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Series S in April 2023. In April 2025, the game's rights were sold to Paradox Interactive for £3.6 million.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Stranded: Alien Dawn is a simulation video game which tasks players to guide a group of settlers marooned on a deadly alien planet and ensure their survival. At the beginning of the game, players can select several starting scenarios, each with their own goals and objectives. The game features several difficulty levels, and the game allows players to adjust various parameters of gameplay such as the aggression level of alien lifeforms and the frequency of natural disasters.

Players need to manage the crew and assign tasks for each survivor, occasionally controlling them directly. They need to gather resources, observe alien lifeforms, and eventually, plant crops, hunt for food, and build a self-sustaining community. The maps are procedurally generated, and players can send off a scout out in a hot air balloon to collect natural resources, and sometimes recruit new survivors. Each survivor also has their own strengths and weaknesses and distinct personality, which affects the performance and the happiness of other crew members. As player progresses, their settlement or outpost will gradually expand, and they will unlock new technology that improve the survivors' well-being, and weaponry that can be used against hostile lifeforms.

Development

Stranded: Alien Dawn was developed by Bulgarian developer Haemimont Games, the developer behind the Tropico series and Surviving Mars. Frontier Foundry, the publishing arm of British developer Frontier Developments, first announced their partnership with Haemimont in December 2019. The game was officially revealed during Gamescom 2022 Opening Night Live. After entering early access in October 2022, Stranded: Alien Dawn was released in full on April 25, 2023, for Windows PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Series S.

Reception

The game received "generally positive reviews" upon release, according to review aggregator platform Metacritic.

Kim Armstrong from Rock, Paper, Shotgun compared the game to RimWorld, and described the experience as "incredibly refreshing". Christopher Livingston from PC Gamer, meanwhile, described the game as a "a survival colony builder that generates stories of triumph, disaster, and white-knuckle rescues".

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
WindowsEarly Access12 October 2022Worldwide · Worldwide 25 April 2023
Xbox Series X/S25 April 2023Worldwide · North America 9 May 2023
Xbox One25 April 2023Worldwide · North America 9 May 2023
PlayStation 425 April 2023Worldwide
PlayStation 525 April 2023Worldwide

Editions and related releases

Downloadable content
Stranded: Alien Dawn - Robots and Guardians
Built on it
Stranded: Alien Dawn - Robots and Guardians

Games like this

Collections3 collections

Years

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.